


labels masks and names

by davidelizabeth



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 11:46:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13410603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/davidelizabeth/pseuds/davidelizabeth
Summary: Eventually, he discovers, that its alright to, just be Zuko that he doesn't need to bury and hide himself behind labels and masks and names,





	labels masks and names

**When Zuko is born, he is given his first name, his first label.**

 

_ ‘Disappointment’ _

 

He is born without a spark in his eye, quiet in his mother's arm. He is born without the chilling screams of new life, that would bounce and echo and reverberate off the walls of the sterile, cold birthing chambers of the Fire Nation. The midwife tells his mother, his father, that he would most likely not live to see the sunset, and would undoubtedly be dead before sunrise next. Ozai, moves to discard of the child, to end him before he could even die by the betrayal of his own lungs, and only the sages interference stopped him. He would not listen to even his own wife. 

 

The spirits object to this however, they would not let this infant, this child of Sozin’s line, they would not let him die quietly in the arms of his mother, barely even a day old, having taken only his first hundred breaths. They would not allow him this, this peaceful death. Every child of Sozin’s, and every child of Sozin’s children, and all of their children would suffer and die of either madness, or by the hand of the world. 

 

So Agni himself reached into the heart of this infant, the Azulon’s second son’s first. Agni reached in, and with a harsh breath, exhaled fire, and life, and loyalty, and dedication, right into the child's heart, into his infant soul, and the poor boy  _ screamed.  _

 

\---

 

**His second name, his second label, is gifted to him against his will by the arrival of his younger sister.**

 

_ “Big Brother” _

 

The arrival of Azula is a wake of fan fair. The entire palace is excited about the delivery of his father’s second child. Azula can be heard screaming her breath away all throughout the castle, there is no escape from this child's endless lungs. Zuko wants to cry, there is something so entirely wrong about the screams, as they settle on his two-year-old eardrums.    
  


He tries to forget.

 

\---

 

**Zuko willingly takes upon his third name, his third label, as it is something he craves.**

 

_ “Student, pupil, swordsman.” _

 

When Zuko is eight, his cousin receives permission to take him out of the palace for training, and Lu Ten takes him to Piandao, as his birthday gift, and that is where he takes upon his third name, under the watchful eye of the master swordsman. 

 

He learns, he trains, and he thrives, under the watchful eye of his master and his cousin, of whom he calls his brother. He takes to the dual blades like a match to a flame, like he was supposed to take to firebending, like his sister took to firebending. 

 

He flourishes, moving and twirling with his blades, with a smile on his face, finally being able to succeed at something put in front of him, he spars with his master, with his cousin, he finally acts like the child he is meant to be. 

 

Before he knows it, he has learnt many things, and his time is up, they must return to the palace or be forced to face his father's anger, so they bid Piandao behind, with a bittersweet promise on their lips to return, sometime, eventually, someday.

 

\---

 

**Zuko is forced upon his fourth name, his fourth label, it is thrust upon his spirit and stabled there for all to see.**

 

_ ‘Banished, disgrace’ _

 

The day of the Agni Kai that would leave him disfigured and scarred, seems like any other when he wakes up. He believes he can win, even with his weaker than average firebending, even with the lack of blades in his hands, even without his cousin behind him, the cousin that was dead, who would never return to Zuko’s side, who had broken the promise he had given the young prince the day he had left.

 

He is scared, when he walks up the platform, scared, but still arrogant that he would win. He had to win because if he did not win, he would be proven weak, his father would despise him more than he already did, and all he wanted was for his father to look at him, to look at him and be proud, for once in his life. If it took beating this general, then he would beat one hundred generals, to keep himself in his father's graces, to get his father to love him, at least once in his Agni forsaken life. 

 

He swears, that in the instant his opponent turned around, that he could hear the laughter of a thousand spirits, all laughing at his expense, as he fell to his knees, and  **begged** for his father's mercy, for his father to spare him, that he was sorry, that he would never do it again, that he was loyal, that he was his father's son. The spirits laughter soared higher and higher into a deafening crescendo of cackles and laugher as he was branded down to his very soul, his flesh searing and cooking right on his face, as his father held his head in his hands and  **burned** at the flesh surrounding his eye, and his eye itself. He can't remember when he passed out, but he has the distinct memory of feeling his eye in its socket boil. 

 

He continues to hear the laughter, a quiet chuckling, in the back of his head as he heals, as he is thrown from the nation he calls his own, as he is thrown from his home, from his people, and onto a stone cold ship.

 

He loses sight in his left eye. 

 

His sister would say he deserved it. 

 

Zuko doesn’t disagree. 

 

\---

 

**He stumbles across his fifth name, by accident, but to save face, it was probably Lieutenant Jee’s fault.**

 

_ ‘Captain, sir, commander’ _

 

He treats his crew with a curt respect, none of the people aboard his ship are what you would call, respectable, with most of them being demoted or having been dismissed. Even so, Zuko is not an idiot, he knows that if he treats his crew how he treats himself, he would have a case of mutiny on his hands, and he would lose. 

 

He chats with the cook, lets the medic look over his wound as they sail, he drinks tea against his will with his uncle in the bridge. 

 

He spars with whoever wishes to spar with him, and if no one wishes to, then he spars alone with his uncle. 

 

Somewhere, along the way, maybe between their first, and third temple, the crew starts to, act weird. Zuko definitely does not like it. They seem, to, respect him? Obviously a mistake. 

 

He tries to ignore it, but actual respect? From this absolute ragtag crew? It's an unthinkable thought. When he tries to talk to his uncle about it, the old man only laughs at him and invites him to music night, which he definitely does not want to attend. 

  
He does attend, eventually, he doesn't hear the end of it from his uncle, for weeks. 

 

\---

 

**His sixth name, his sixth label, his first mask, his something he takes up in a fit of desperation.**

 

_ ‘Blue spirit, demon of the night’ _

 

He breaks into the stronghold, high on adrenaline and desperation. He is not seen, he is not heard, he leaves no trace that he has been there, his plan is simple. Break in, break out with the avatar, don’t get caught, return home. 

 

Flaws in this plan; breaking in is harder than it looks, oh fuck that's a lot of guards, how is he supposed to break back out with a second person, his father doesn't love him why is he still trying to return home. 

 

All flaws, but flaws that can be forgiven, mostly, he hopes. 

 

Zuko knows that he is kind of an idiot. He accepts that. 

 

Mostly, the plan works, he breaks in, nabs the avatar, almost loses the avatar to some frogs, he honestly isn't proud of that. They almost get out, but then he gets shot, and Agni does it hurt. He doesn’t remember anything till he wakes up, and he realised that he has been demasked and that the avatar is sitting right there. 

 

The avatar tries to talk to him, but his head hurts too much, and with a weak blast of fire, he tells the avatar that his head hurts way too much to talk right now, but he isn't sure if the fire gave the right message, but it's obviously way too late to care about semantics now. 

 

\---

 

**His seventh label, is sewn into his flesh by his sister, when she slips up, and reveals her true self.**

 

_ ‘Traitor’ _

 

With his uncle, they fight for their freedom, and they run. 

 

It hurts his heart, his head, and something deep in his spirit shatters. He is a traitor, he is a fugitive of his nation, he will most likely never return to his people, he will never be surrounded by his countrymen again, he will never lead them, direct them to become a better nation than what his forefathers have built. 

 

When night falls, he cries. 

 

\---

 

**His second mask, his eighth name, is branded onto his heart, and into his head, by his uncle, and by the life they must assume to be safe** .

 

_ ‘Lee’ _

 

He lives, as Lee, for his uncle. It brings him so much joy to see his uncle, smiling, laughing, enjoying his day to day life, serving tea, running his own tea shop. Iroh smiles at his nephew, even as he scowls at customers occasionally. The sound of his uncles snoring at night is more soothing than ever, as he is still plagued by nightmares, but his uncles close quarters helps.  

 

They serve tea, they live, they smile, and Zuko cherishes every second he gets to see his uncle smile in true joy, something he has not seen since his cousin was still alive, and they played. 

 

Living as Lee is never as hard as it looks, and sometimes Zuko forgets he ever lived any life before this, their cover story worked into their brains, and place within Ba Sing Se is solid. They begin to truly relax, and enjoy the simple life. They cook meals together, and Zuko even lets his uncle try new blends of leaf juice on him. 

 

Zuko is happy. 

 

\---

 

**When he receives his ninth label, his ninth name, he is, understandably pissed off.**

 

_ ‘Ally’ _

 

He was not expecting his sister to infiltrate the city, he was not expecting to be involved, he was not expecting the avatar. Thinking back now, it was very stupid, he should have known. Yet again, both of them are drawn into the combat. 

 

Azula offers him a choice, but Zuko is no longer stupid, his loyalty to his father lays shattered at the bottom of his heart, and his loyalty to his uncle may just get him killed yet. Busting his uncle out of the crystal is easier than it seemed, and soon they were both running to assist the avatar.

  
Zuko was, understandably, still pretty pissed off. 

 

They do not win, but they do not lose, they escape, this time, with their lives. 

 

His next problem, however, seems to be the group of people he is stuck with, on top, of a flying monstrosity of a beast. Zuko is not amused in the slightest. His uncle has managed, to not only fall asleep, but has almost rolled himself off the beast three times, and again, he  _ really isn't amused please wake up they are  _ **_STARING_ ** . 

 

The third time, his uncle almost falls to his death off the flying beast, Sokka bursts out laughing, and Zuko still isn't amused, his uncle is going to die and it's going to be his own stupid fault for falling to his death and Zuko is definitely going to die straight afterwards because if his uncle rolls off the side  _ Zuko is going to follow him right off the side of the damn bison. _

 

When they finally land, he pushes his uncle right off the side of the bison. He hears a few gasps behind him, and a snicker. His uncle lands on his feet, the damned bastard, and laughs at the look on his nephews face. 

 

Their next problem, is quite obviously, the Water Tribe warriors on the beach, and Zuko graciously let his esteemed uncle handle the damn politics, because he is not doing it, ever. Zuko sits by the fire, and pointedly, doesn't sulk. He knows that's a lie, he knows that Toph, who is sitting across from him, knows that its a lie, everything is a lie but Zuko doesn’t need to be reminded right now, that he is definitely sulking. 

 

Iroh secures their position within the ranks of the men, with Sokka and Aang backing up his story of their defection, and them both being traitors to the Fire Nation, and after asking the young boys to leave, divulges a few, more  _ personal _ details to the Water Tribe chief. 

 

Zuko, and Iroh, are to teach Aang firebending, which definitely sounds easier in theory than practice. They travel on the Fire Nation cruiser that the Water Tribe managed to take, and Iroh begins training Aang, much like he trained Zuko. First, he removed all traces of bad habits. Which took a while. 

 

Soon, Zuko finds himself, and Sokka, in front of his old sword master, as Sokka asks to be trained in the way of the sword. Zuko can tell that Piandao is endlessly amused, Zuko definitely isn’t. During the day, he leaves them alone, instead, moving his way through the property, remembering the places he went with his dearest cousin, and trying to remember what he looked like, it was all so fuzzy. 

 

\---

 

**Zuko wants to shove his tenth name, his tenth label, down the avatars throat.**

 

_ ‘Sifu, master, teacher’ _

 

He threatens the Avatar, again, and again, and again, and yet, it never works. Typical. 

 

Together, they discover that the old masters of firebending still live, and they learn. They learn the true source of firebending, not the rage and anger and hate that imperial firebending is based off. 

 

Zuko feels the fire flowing through his veins, through his spirit, through his heart. He is surrounded by the fire embrace, and for once in his life, it feels like the spirits have stopped laughing at him, and have finally taken all his threats and prayers seriously. 

 

\---

 

Eventually, he discovers, that its alright to, just be  _ Zuko _ that he doesn't need to bury and hide himself behind labels and masks and names, but, he is still proud of the names he has gathered, and the way they have paved his life, paved his life so that he could reach this point, surrounded by found family, and with his loving uncle by his side. 

**Author's Note:**

> watch me toss canon in the trash all night long


End file.
